ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY AND EDUCATIONAL IDEAL

Environmental literacy is not encouraged by discipline-based education . Discipline-based education is damaging not only because it breaks th e link between experience and theory but also because it encourages le arners to believe that complex practical problems can be solved using the resources of just one or two specialist disciplines or frameworks of thought. It is argued that discipline-based education has been extr emely successful, and its very success is a factor which explains some of our poor thinking about environmental problems. These problems are highly complex, and it is important for learners to discover the limi tations of particular frameworks of thought and disciplinary approache s. This is particularly important in the case of economics. An educati on which emphasises the limitations of specialist approaches to comple x problems can also be used to help overcome the depersonalising effec t of bureaucracies.